One look at the political history of Dish Network founder and Chairman Charles Ergen places the idea that the network dropped Fox News over a simple contract dispute in serious doubt. Since Dec. 20, when the Dish network dropped Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, the former has lost about 90,000 subscribers. The Media Research Center’s Dan Joseph decided to take a look at OpenSecrets documents revealing Ergen’s political donations from last year, which immediately raised some red flags. Ergen donated a total of $64,000 to the Democratic Senatorial campaign Committee, according to the report. As Joseph writes, Ergen’s donating record obviously doesn’t prove he...

Hedging against a protracted carriage battle with Fox News, Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) has signed an agreement to carry Glenn Beck's indie conservative channel TheBlaze. The move comes two weeks after 21st Century Fox pulled Fox News off the program guides of 14 million Dish subscribers. "Due to circumstances beyond my control, Dish has removed Fox News and given TheBlaze TV their spot in the channel lineup," Beck wrote on his Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) page over the holidays. "That means if you have Dish, you can now watch TheBlaze on channel 212 and channel 205, 100 percent free.

In response to Comcast’s (CMCSA) $45 billion buyout of Time Warner Cable (TWC), Dish Network (DISH) has reportedly sent feelers out to rival DirecTV (DTV) about a possible combination of the two satellite television companies. The potential tie-up would marry the two largest U.S. satellite TV operators, creating a juggernaut with about 34 million subscribers. According to Bloomberg News, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen recently approached DirecTV CEO Mike White about a merger. White is reluctant to go ahead with formal talks due to concerns about opposition from antitrust regulators, the news service said.

DirecTV recently announced it will drop the Inspiration Network from its lineup, leaving its stable of profane and worldly channels untouched. Incredibly, reports indicate the provider also misrepresented the development by suggesting the network initiated the split. In reality, it appears the decision was wholly that of the provider. Perhaps the most baffling aspect of the decision lies in the fact that DirecTV did not gain anything – or save any money – by dropping the network. Unlike the majority of channels carried by the company, the Inspiration Network does not charge a license fee to providers. Many failing networks cost carriers...

The Weather Channel feed was switched to show WeatherNationTv just after midnight EST January 14th. the TWC logo is there still in the DirecTV channel lineup, but the content is WeatherNation. See the proof, this screencap off my TV at 9:02PM PST (12:02 AM EST):

during last night's NFL game, Directv ran an ad promoting the new Al Jazeera channel in their line up. No WAY. I just sent them an email giving them two options --- Block/remove it, or cancel my account. Not going to come into our house.

Two weeks ago, Al Jazeera America launched, beaming into 48 million homes across the country. The media company that allowed Osama bin Laden to use it as a vehicle to communicate with jihadists around the world is now on your TV screen and you are paying for it. The network pushed its way onto basic cable packages with several providers. If you subscribe to Verizon, Comcast, Dish Network or DirecTV, you are forced to subsidize Al Jazeera's propaganda as part of your cable bill whether you like it or not. I represent a district about 70 miles north of where...

With streaming television becoming more and more popular, and providers like Aereo making an end-run around cable and satellite providers, a lot of attention is being paid to the future of bundled cable. In a world of growing choices and a weak, jobless economy, how long can something last that charges customers a ton of money for dozens of channels they never watch? Bundled cable is, in my opinion, one of the greatest hustles ever perpetuated against the American people. The worst part is how it works as a kind of affirmative-action program for left-wing programming that likely wouldn’t survive...

Speaking at a gathering of digital advertisers in New York City last night, Mr Schmidt refused to forecast when internet video would displace television, instead declaring: "That's already happened." "It's not a replacement for something that we know," he added. "It's a new thing that we have to think about, to program, to curate and build new platforms." YouTube recently surpassed the milestone of a billion unique users a month. Only the Google search engine and social network Facebook are frequented more often by those browsing the internet worldwide. However, the video site lags behind traditional television in the UK,...

Veteran programmer Rob Barnett recently attended a breakfast meeting of television executives where the talk turned, as it almost always does these days, to “disruption,” the industry buzzword for the way new technology is upsetting the TV applecart. From somewhere down the table, he heard a question: “Has anybody here cut the cord?” — that is, dropped cable service in favor of just watching TV through the Internet? Barnett shrugged and raised his hand. “Mine was the only one,” he recalls. “But when it went up, I saw beads of sweat break out on the foreheads of some of the...

Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read Back in 1983, approximately 0 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States. Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. These corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most Americans don't even stop to think about who...

Most FReepers are not aware of this, but the past six or seven months have been full of disruptions: the biggest being our having to move from our home of 28 years to a new abode. And there is no cable out here (and analog aerials don't work any more). So yes, I must now ask the question which other FReepers have asked on prior occasions: which is better, Dish Network or Direct TV? I have long assumed that satellite is cheaper than cable. Well, it is cheaper, but not by nearly as much as I thought. Dish Network has...

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, hit the two leading Republican presidential candidates this morning - one for spending issues and the other on his much-discussed tax plan. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., "thinks there's some sort of virtue in not criticizing Bush's [big spending] mistakes," Norquist said. Romney could correct that mistake, but Norquist was even less sanguine about Cain's 9-9-9 plan. "Having three taxes, all of which can grow - it's like having three needles in your arm taking blood out, it's much more dangerous than having one," Norquist explained. Norquist praised Cain for trying to...

In the recent Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican presidential debate the moderators wanted the candidates to get specific regarding their economic/jobs plans. That's sort of amusing considering that the level of specificity we got from Obama in 2008 was "hope" and "change you can believe in." It turns out that we didn't get much hope, but Obama kept his promise to "fundamentally transform the United States of America. With his 9-9-9 plan Herman Cain might be getting a little too specific. Actually, it's not the specificity; it's the rigidity that Cain has been displaying which will eventually hurt him. I think Cain...

Fast forward into troubleFour years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from a country crash-landing in the 21st century Saturday June 14, 2003The GuardianApril 2002 was a turbulent month for the people of Bhutan. One of the remotest nations in the world, perched high in the snowlines of the Himalayas, suffered a crime wave. The 700,000 inhabitants of...

DirecTV has reached a settlement agreement with States Attorney Generals in all 50 states over consumer complaints about its advertising, customer service and third-party retailer policies. A DirecTV spokesperson said the settlement included $14.25 million for court costs in all 50 of those states, plus an as-yet undetermined amount for restitution to consumers. The complaints date back to January 2007, according to Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray in an e-mailed release about the settlement, which stems from allegations of deceptive and unfair business practices. For example, Cordray said his offices had received 1,714 complaints over that time, including that DirceTV...

The number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom TV services in the U.S. fell for the first time ever in the second quarter, according to research firm SNL Kagan. The U.S. multichannel TV market lost 216,000 customers last quarter, vs. a gain of 378,000 a year ago. The total number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom video fell to 100.1 million in the second quarter, SNL Kagan says.

Washington, D.C. (August 3, 2010) -- The Better Business Bureau reports that more than 53,000 consumers have filed complaints about their satellite TV service in the past three years. According to the BBB, 39,000 of the complaints were filed against DIRECTV while 13,000 were against Dish Network. Many of the complaints, the consumer group said, stemmed from fees and terms in the satcasters' customer agreements. The companies often invoke penalties if customers cancel their service before their agreements expire; the agreements are usually two years in length. “Many complaints to BBB about satellite providers stem from steep cancellation fees,” Stephen...

Washington, D.C. (July 16, 2010) -- NASA TV next week will launch a full-time High-Definition channel featuring news and coverage of agency missions and programs. The HD channel, which will be launched on Monday, will include live launch coverage of space shuttles and other spacecraft, a daily program covering the activities of the International Space Station crew and 'Video of the Earth' shots by the station crew. NASA said the channel will also deliver video file news feeds for local stations, media conferences and lectures on space-related subjects. NASA TV HD will be offered in the MPEG-2 format. The agency...

Scientists have identified a massive eruption from the sun in April that reached all the way to Earth and may be responsible for knocking out a satellite, creating a so-called "zombie satellite." The huge explosion of plasma and magnetic energy, called as a coronal mass ejection, occurred on April 3 and was observed by NASA's sun-watching STEREO spacecraft, according to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The laboratory released new images of the solar storm last week. The solar storm appears to have disabled the Intelsat communications satellite Galaxy 15, NRL officials said. Galaxy 15 lost contact with its ground controllers...

LONDON (AP) -- A TV communications satellite is drifting out of control thousands of miles above the Earth, threatening to wander into another satellite's orbit and interfere with cable programming across the United States, the satellites' owners said Tuesday. Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15 satellite on April 8....

Media mogul John Malone has agreed to reduce his voting control of satellite TV operator DirecTV Inc. to 3 percent by trading in his super-voting shares for common shares worth some $162 million more. Malone also agreed to resign from the board of directors, the company said Tuesday. The transaction was necessary to satisfy a concern the Federal Communications Commission had about Malone essentially controlling two TV signal providers that do business in Puerto Rico, DirecTV said. The Malone family controls Liberty Global Inc., which owns Liberty Cablevision Puerto Rico. Under the new arrangement, Malone, his wife and two trusts...

I'm in the process of selecting a satellite TV provider since I'll be moving soon when I buy a house. I found an old FR thread from 2003 on the topic of Direct TV vs. Dish TV. The market has changed since then. I only have two TV locations. I don't need the premium channels, just the basics, especially Fox News. Any suggestions and information will be appreciated.

Just started getting the 'Storm Fade' effect from "Snowmageddon"..have lost most of my DirecTV channels to one degee or another. Still getting my local channels though (off my roof attenna no doubt, but still digital. I gotta admit i'm curious as to how long it will last (the outage) considering the intensity of the storm. But considering my usual TV fare for Friday nights, is Ghost Whisperer, Medium, and Numb3rs, that and a large list of movies at Netflix to watch instantly, i'm not all gthat put out. Shame Hulu doesn't have a deal with CBS, so that if the...

BAGHDAD -- Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis have been greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein. The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar's anniversary of his 2006 execution. No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it's Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman. The Saddam channel, he said, "didn't...

Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein. The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar's anniversary of his 2006 execution. No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it's Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman. The Saddam channel, he said, "didn't receive a penny...

Despite the recession and growing competition, DIRECTV has been remarkably effective in continuing to add subscribers. In its last financial statement, the satcaster said its net subscribers rose 74 percent in the second quarter, with a monthly churn rate of just 1.5 percent. At the end of the second quarter, DIRECTV reported that it had more than 18 million subscribers in total, a seven percent increase over last year's second quarter. Well, DIRECTV, enjoy it while you can. I predict that the nation's largest satcaster will start to experience a slowdown in subscriber growth -- and it will be largely...

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa announced Saturday he is seeking to definitively shut down a private television station that he accused of "espionage" on his office. The station Teleamazonas, a private broadcaster that has been critical of Correa and his government, has already been fined multiple times for breaking broadcasting law, notably for reporting opposition charges of voter fraud during April's general elections. This week the station broadcast a secretly recorded conversation between Correa and a Quito lawmaker -- seemingly the last straw for Correa, who has sought the station's closure for months. "I ask that Teleamazonas... is finally closed," Correa...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Authorities have closed an office of an Arab TV station after it broadcast an interview with a Saudi man speaking frankly about sex and showed off erotic toys, a Saudi official said Sunday. Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and Information, told The Associated Press that the office of LBC, a Lebanese-based satellite TV station, in the western city of Jiddah was closed because of the program and because it is unlicensed. "The closure is indefinite," al-Hazza said. The Saudi man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, has been in detention since last Friday. Abdul-Jawad, a 32-year-old...

<p>LONDON (AP) - The BBC is using two extra satellites to broadcast its Farsi-language service after days of jamming it blamed on Iran.</p>
<p>The British state-run news organization said the move was meant to help it reach its Iranian audience as the crisis over their country's disputed election deepens. It is also a challenge to Iran's religious government, which has accused foreign broadcasters of stirring unrest, singling out the BBC in particular.</p>

The BBC said Sunday that the satellites it uses to broadcast in Persian were being jammed from Iran, disrupting its reports on the hotly-disputed presidential election. The corporation said television and radio services had been affected from 1245 GMT Friday onwards by "heavy electronic jamming" which had become "progressively worse". Satellite technicians had traced the interference to Iran, it said. The satellites its uses in the Middle East to broadcast BBC Persian television to Iran were being affected, meaning that audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe would likely experience disruption. BBC Arabic television and other language services had...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secrectary _______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release April 13, 2009 April 13, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE SUBJECT: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba The promotion of democracy and human rights in Cuba is in the national interest of the United States and is a key component of this Nation's foreign policy in the Americas. Measures that decrease dependency of the Cuban people on the Castro regime and that promote contacts between Cuban-Americans...

Well, the New Year is here and I've already made nine predictions for High-Definition in 2009, including $99 Blu-ray players and an end to Internet TV services Vudu and Apple TV and retailer Circuit City.I also predicted that the Digital TV transition will create a ratings hardship for local TV stations with many viewers deciding not to participate in the switch due to its confusing nature.So, do I have any more predictions for 2009? Yes!My crystal ball is still clear as a bell. So let's start the year with 5 more fearless forecasts for HDTV.1. DIRECTV Cuts Back On Original...

Washington, D.C. (December 30, 2008) -- On July 31, 2008, Dish Network issued a press release saying it planned to expand its high-def lineup to 150 channels by year's end. On November 1, 2007, Verizon released a press statement saying it would have 150 HD channels by the end of 2008. And several times this year, DIRECTV issued press releases saying it would have the capacity to deliver up to 150 national HD channels before the year was over. So now that the year is over (minus about a day or so), did these top TV providers keep their promises?...

Al-Quds, Hamas’s second satellite TV channel, went on air on November 11, further expanding that movement’s media empire. Hamas’s willingness to invest considerable resources in its media, even when faced with financial distress, reflects the significance it places on the battle for hearts and minds.

For years, it's been one of those speculative staple questions of consumer-media research: If you could only keep one thing out of a list that included your phone, your TV or your computer and internet connection, what would it be? But with the recession looming, it's no longer such an academic question. Agencies, media, telecoms and other marketers are pondering the implications of an impending shakeout where, after years of piling on one subscription fee after another, consumers take a harder look at what they really need. Their decisions in what look to be lean years ahead could play a...

OK - I'm about to call DishNetwork and give them a piece of my mind. However, I'm running out of pieces to give. I was flipping through my channel guide on DishNetwork and what did I find? An entire freakin' channel on 0bama. Channel 73 on DishNetwork is now OBAMA. Looks like all it is doing is playing over and over and over "Barack Obama's Plan for America".

It has not been a good year in the courts for Echostar / Dish Network. Today thanks for the folks at the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) a court has blocked a request from Echostar to subpoena the records containing the name, address, email address and purchase details of everyone who has ever purchased a Coolsat Brand Free To Air Satellite Receiver. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last month, EFF filed an amicus brief in Echostar v. Freetech, where Echostar sought the identities of every consumer who purchased a Freetech "CoolSat" free-to-air (FTA) satellite receiver during the past five years. EFF argued that this demand,...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Arabs across the ideological spectrum, from secular-minded liberals to Muslim hard-liners, are denouncing a top Saudi cleric's edict that it was permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that show "immoral" content. Many expressed worry the recent comments by Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan — chief of the kingdom's highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council — would fuel terrorism, encouraging attacks on station employees and owners.

Washington, D.C. (August 5, 2008) -- Dish Network is considering merging with rival satcaster DIRECTV, The Wall Street Journal reported today. The newspaper reports that the companies have not discussed a formal proposal, but have had "general discussions" about the idea. The two satcasters attempted to merge several years ago, but the FCC rejected the plan in 2002 on grounds that it would be anti-competitive. However, in the years since, other video competition has emerged, including TV services from telco giants AT&T and Verizon and set-top Net TV services from Apple TV, Amazon, TiVo and Netflix. WSJ reports that Dish...

Dish Network today announced that it will add 17 national HDTV channels on August 1, saying the additions will give it 100 national HD channels overall. The satcaster promised in January that it would offer 100 national HD channels by year's end. DIRECTV, Dish's top satellite rival, now offers around 95 national HD channels, but has promised to deliver up to 150 national HD channels by year's end. “In January, we promised our customers that DISH Network would boost our national HD channel lineup to 100 by year’s end. Today, we are proud to say that in less than one...

Among the international broadcasters that will cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver is al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite news network based in Qatar. Al-Jazeera English (launched in 2006) and al-Jazeera Arabic, separate but collaborative networks, will send two dozen staffers each. "This presidential election is the biggest story of the year, even on the international level," according to Camille El Hassani, senior producer for al-Jazeera English, based in Washington. "The next president's ideologies and his philosophies affect our viewers. Al-Jazeera is making a commitment to be at all the big events, including the conventions, Democratic and Republican." Al-Jazeera English will...

In the very real war on terror, a nosy squabble over “fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here” clouds a simple truth: namely, that “they” are here already. Indeed, Islamists are busy constructing a wing of jihad in America’s backyard. A potential audience of one million Arab-speaking cable subscribers of Time Warner in the greater New York area can feast on the Arabic Channel known as TAC to choose a menu that includes: A daily dose of Islamic jurisprudence from a sheik — most often Egyptian Amr Khaled, who wears a suit instead of a robe,...

Dish Network today added Sci-Fi Channel HD and USA Network HD to its High-Definition lineup. Rumors have circulated for weeks that the satcaster was about to add the two channels. With today's additions, Dish now has 79 national HD channels. Dish's high-def expansion plans suffered a setback this month when a satellite it planned to use to increase its HD capacity was declared a failure. But Dish said yesterday in a regulatory filing that it's still "on track" to offer 100 national HD channels by year's end, which it promised in January. Dish said there are still two more satellite...

SEDALIA, Mo. -- Prosecutors are not expected to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while he was trying to install a satellite TV system in their home. Henry County investigators ruled that Patsy Long's March 22 death was accidental. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired his .22 caliber pistol from inside their Deepwater home after he couldn't punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.